While it appears to be a local effort of Jersey City residents, Keep Our Homes JC was organized, launched and orchestrated by identified Airbnb Inc. employees in San Francisco and New York City, in collaboration with ‘the Strategy Group’, political consultants from Pasadena, CA.

According to government filings, Airbnb Inc. has allocated more than four million dollars, so far, to overturn the Short Term Rental regulations that the Jersey City Council  adopted in June 2019.

Donation records show that Airbnb is the only organization that has donated money to Keep Our Homes JC, i.e. for all intents and purposes Keep Our Homes JC is nothing but an extension of Airbnb Inc.

This massive political campaign involves Airbnb pretending to be a local Jersey City organization, i.e. it is an astroturfing campaign. Marriam-Webster’s dictionary defines astroturfing as follows:

organized activity that is intended to create a false impression of a widespread, spontaneously arising, grassroots movement in support of or in opposition to something (such as a political policy) but that is in reality initiated and controlled by a concealed group or organization (such as a corporation)

This site has 10 examples of astroturfing campaigns from the last two decades: business insider.

Commentary / Analysis

Unethical Campaign

The Airbnb campaign is operating differently from all other organizations involved in the referendum (e.g. labour unions) and deployed the following unethical tactics:

• mailing out tens of thousands of anonymous flyers, which misrepresent the new regulations, in an effort to influence residents to repeal
• concealing their involvement in this propaganda operation, by:
  • forming an influencing group called Keep Our Homes JC, which pretends to be a local group in Jersey City,
  • not disclosing that Keep Our Homes JC is orchestrated by Airbnb employees in San Francisco and New York and political consultants in Pasadena, California
  • using an anonymous mailbox address in Jersey City as the mailing address for their political operations instead of an Airbnb office address
  • using an anonymously registered web site for their campaign
    • https://www.keepourhomesjc.com/
  • using deceptive handles on social media (e.g. Twitter and Facebook)
• In an apparent violation of Twitter policies, @KeepOurHomesJC has failed to register as an “Issue Advertiser,” circumventing Twitter’s political disclosure policies, to avoid having their advertisements appropriately labelled as political or issue advertising.
  • The policy reads in part “As part of our Issue Ads Policy and our overall commitment to transparency, Twitter requires that advertisers promoting content that refer to an election […] go through a certification process.”

Campaign to overturn Jersey City regulations is orchestrated by Airbnb employees and the Strategy Group from California

When KeepOurHomesJC organization was registered, it had 3 initial directors – all were Airbnb employees in San Francisco and New York. None lived in Jersey City. Subsequent election filings also list political consultant and Strategy Group employee Douglas Herman as ‘responsible for the affairs’ of KeepOurHomesJC.

Screen shots and links to all source documents are provided at end of article.

The people that are orchestrating the campaign are listed here with twitter handles for two reasons:

• For voters it is crucial to know who stands behind the campaign when evaluating the messaging and decide how to vote. Access to this information protects democratic process and ensures fair elections.
• To ensure that the employees that are orchestrating the campaign know that they have to take ownership for the adverts and messaging they are putting out. We expect that this will lead to less devise discourse and fewer falsehoods.

Anonymous Flyers Misrepresents the Referendum Question and Misleads Voters

Airbnb has mailed out tens of thousands of flyers to Jersey City residents, while masquerading as a Jersey City organization called Keep Our Homes JC. During a four week period, the residents supporting this website have received an average of fifteen (15) flyers each – approximately 1 flyer every 2 days.

The anonymous flyers feature various attack messages on two common themes: misrepresenting the regulations as a ban, and playing on residents’ fears of losing their homes.

Airbnb’s Campaign Misrepresentations: It’s a ban

Anonymous flyers and TV advertisements claim that the regulations adopted by the Jersey City Council are a ban on short-term rentals. This is a grave misrepresentation; some say it’s an outright lie.

Many cities and towns around Jersey City, NJ have opted to ban Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms; Jersey City has not done so. Instead, Jersey City has enacted regulations on who and how short-term rentals can be offered, along with licensing and safety inspection requirements.

Under the guise of KeepOurHomesJC, Airbnb Inc. claims that Jersey City’s regulations are a ban. They argue that this is , since renters are not allowed to sublet their apartments on a short-term basis under the new regulations.

By this logic, it would be equally correct to (erroneously) claim that “Under the new regulations, everyone can rent out their home on a short-term basis for 365 days a year,” as all homeowners in residence may do so.

When flatly declaring that something is banned or allowed, without qualifying it, it is understood to mean that something is universally banned or allowed.

Airbnb’s / KeepOurHomesJC’s claims are highly disingenuous.

Airbnb’s Campaign Misrepresentations : Regulations ban condo-owners in high-rises from short-term rentals

KeepOurHomesJC’s propaganda material and spokesperson Liz Debold Fusco has repeatedly stated that the regulations completely ban condo owners in buildings with four/five or more units from renting their homes on short-term basis.

This is false.

The regulations specifically allow home-owners in condos buildings, regardless of number of units, to rent out part of their homes on a short term basis – the specific regulation that allows this is §255-2.b.i:

“Short-term rentals shall [..] be permitted to be conducted in the following classifications of property in the City of Jersey City: i.) Dwelling units located in a condominium association, homeowners association or cooperative association where the association’s Bylaws, Master Deed, or other relevant governing document permits short-term rentals and where the owner of the unit legally identifies an address within the association as his or her principal residence”

The plain language of the ordinance clearly state that short-term rentals are allowed in condos without a restriction on the number of units. Under the new regulations, these condo home-owners are allowed to conduct home sharing in its true meaning, i.e. sharing their home by renting out rooms within their home, while they live there to make extra money or just to make ends meet.

Airbnb’s Campaign Misrepresentations : Struggling to pay for food and groceries?

One of the people featured repeatedly in Airbnb’s advertising is Nathan Taylor. The flyers claim he struggles to pay for “Groceries, food, mass transit and travel”. He laments that “…everything is going up” and “If you care about the cost of living and making Jersey City affordable then Vote no on municipal question 1.”

However, as exposed by National Public Radio / WNYC and the Gothamist, Nathan Taylor is not struggling to make ends meet. Nathan Taylor has leased two “different apartments – a studio and a three-bedroom” and alternately rents out one on short-term basis while he lives in the other.

Airbnb’s Campaign Misrepresentations : Did taxes go up or down?

Another person heavily featured in Airbnb / KeepOurHomesJC propaganda is Sherry Geoghan. She claims that:

My home has been in our family for three generations. My husband and I both work hard, but the property taxes are really high. We want to continue living in Jersey City, but we need help in order to do so. The ability to rent our property short-term has help us offset the tax increases we’ve seen.”

The text implies that:

• her ability to rent out her home is limited by the new regulations,
• her taxes has increased and
• without renting her home on short term basis she may lose it.

There are two problems with these statement:

• A search for public records shows that the home she owns is a two-unit home, which means that while she is living in one of the units, the new regulations allow her to rent out the other unit on short-term basis for 365 days per year. The new regulations do not limit her ability to rent out her home on a short term basis as implied in the flyer.
• Public records further show that Sherry’s taxes were reduced by more than 15% during the recent property revaluation in Jersey City. That is, her taxes have gone down, not up, as implied in the ad.

Airbnb Campaign Backfiring and Owe Residents and Apology

From their offices in California and NYC, Airbnb Inc. and KeepOurHomesJC are running a deceptive and dishonest campaign that misrepresents Jersey City’s short-term rental regulations and are driving the community apart.

Residents have taken to Twitter, Nextdoor and other social media to express their frustration with the campaign and the tactics that Airbnb has deployed while pretending to be our neighbors.

Almost all comments on all of #KeepOurHomesJC tweets express frustration with the deceptive campaign, e.g.

• https://twitter.com/keepourhomesjc/status/1187081254249865217

A number of people have in interviews lambasted KeepOurHomesJC for the sheer number of wasteful flyers they’ve propagated, and their negative impact on the environment and that they provide no way to opt-out of the mailing. Another person took to twitter:

• https://twitter.com/officialscarysp/status/1188217819940507654

When Airbnb ran tone deaf ads during another political campaign in San Francisco in 2015, they later apologized to the residents of San Francisco. Its time for Airbnb to apologize again.

We, residents of Jersey City, ask you @KeepOurHomesJC, @LDeboldFusco, @MoretMarisa, @DouglasJHerman, @Airbnb, to stop this dishonest campaign, fueled by millions of dollars of corrupting, dark money, orchestrated from thousands of miles away, that seek to overturn local laws that our city council has enacted, by spreading misinformation and falsehoods!

Are you also frustrated of their campaign – do your part! Tweet and re-tweet to the organizers and demand that they stop @Airbnb, @KeepOurHomesJC, @LDeboldFusco, @MoretMarisa and @DouglasJHerman.

Supporting Documents

• Keep Our Homes JC, New Jersey Formation Document
  • This document shows that the initial directors are the three Airbnb, Inc. employees listed above.
  • Obtained from the state of New Jersey, Department of the Treasury

• Keep Our Homes JC, Political Committee – Registration Statement and Designation of Campaign Treasurer and Depository
  • This document shows that Douglas Herman was designated as a person “having control over the affairs” of KeepOurHomesJC
  • Obtained from the state of New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Comission (ELEC)
  • https://www.elec.state.nj.us/ELECReport/SearchCandidate.aspx

If you find anything factually incorrect on this page, please contact us.